I am delighted to announce a new initiative that I believe will transform Cochrane as an evidence-producing and knowledge-diffusing organization. Today, we are proud to launch our new Cochrane Membership scheme, making it easier than ever before for anyone from anywhere in the world to become a part of our global community of supporters and collaborators passionate about improving healthcare decisions.
The Cochrane Membership scheme will enable us to grow our collaboration, attracting many new people with a wider range of experience and skills into our work, and allowing us to recognize their contributions and sustain our global activities for better health outcomes.
Cochrane’s past, present, and future success is built on the quality of the people it attracts and retains. We are so proud of the tens of thousands of volunteers who already work with us because we know that what we do and the impact for good that we have as an organization are rooted in their efforts. And from today, that world is becoming wider; a world where decisions about health and health care are informed by high-quality, relevant and up-to-date synthesized research evidence.
Today’s announcement is part of the first phase of our Membership scheme, which will evolve and expand in the coming months and years. I wanted to share with you what this means, how you can make contributions to Cochrane’s work, and be a part of our expanding global community.
Whether you just want to stay close to what we're about and what we're doing; build your health research skills and training; help us translate Cochrane evidence into your language; support us with a financial contribution; or eventually become an independent published author in one of the world's top health journals – the Cochrane Library – we have many ways that you can become part of our work.
Joining Cochrane as a supporter can be a commitment as immediate as screening records to find randomized trials with only five minutes of training as part of Cochrane Crowd; or as demanding and involved as being accepted as an author of a Cochrane Review. Many of our contributors work on Cochrane projects during working hours, others in their spare time, in workplaces or at home. It's up to you, depending on your interests and the time you have to contribute.
We’ve created a central membership database that stores details of Cochrane’s supporters and members and tracks their contributions to Cochrane, whether as an author, translator, Crowd participant, Task Exchange contributor, or a learner. The system will recommend activities to new supporters and members to help them expand your skills, experience, and expertise, making it easier to contribute to Cochrane’s work without increasing the workload of our Cochrane Groups.
Supporters are eligible to become Cochrane members after reaching a threshold of activities linked to their contributions. By becoming a member of Cochrane, you will:
- Develop new skills and interests
- Work with like-minded colleagues and collaborators
- Grow professional and social networks
- Receive world class training from world leading experts in the fields of medicine, health policy, research methodology, and consumer advocacy
- See your contributions recorded and recognized
- Receive discounts for Cochrane’s annual conference registration and Cochrane’s Interactive Learning online training course (Cochrane authors and editorial teams will continue to have free access to all learning resources)
- Influence how Cochrane is run through voting for Governing Board members and resolutions in the Annual General Meeting
To find out more about Cochrane’s work in improving global health decision making and how you can make a difference, visit our Membership pages.
Cochrane Membership signals a huge change for the organization and I’m delighted we are announcing its launch this week at the Global Evidence Summit in Cape Town. Our doors are now open to the world in a new expansive way; everyone is welcome to join us and make a contribution – large or small – to our global mission: an open collaboration of brilliant people from around the world all working together to inform and impact health decision making.
With my very best wishes,
Mark Wilson
Cochrane’s Chief Executive Officer.
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